The Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced that it has tasked its embassy in Tel Aviv to ask Israel to open an investigation to clarify historical facts about the 1967 war, after the Israeli press reported the discovery of a mass grave of Egyptian soldiers believed to have been burned alive during the war.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Sunday evening – in a statement – that "in response to a question about what was reported in the Israeli press in connection with historical facts that occurred in the 1967 war, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ahmed Hafez, said that the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv has been tasked with communicating with the Israeli authorities to investigate the truth of what is being circulated in the media."

It added that the embassy would "demand an investigation to clarify the credibility of this information and to urgently inform the Egyptian authorities of the relevant details."

On the other hand, the office of Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement that Lapid instructed his military secretary to discuss this issue "radically and inform the Egyptian authorities of developments."

The statement noted that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi raised the issue in a phone call with Lapid.

For his part, the spokesman for the Egyptian presidency said that Lapid stressed that Israel will deal with the issue in a positive and transparent manner in coordination with the Egyptian authorities, as he put it.

In recent days, Israeli journalist Yossi Melman and the Israeli newspapers Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz said they had found that Egyptian soldiers were burned alive in the 1967 war, were not reported killed, and were buried in an unmarked mass grave, in violation of the laws of war, amid estimates of their number reaching dozens.

Millman said in a series of tweets last Friday that "after 55 years of intense censorship, I can reveal that at least 20 Egyptian soldiers were burned alive and buried by the Israeli army in a mass grave, not marked, and anonymously, in violation of the laws of war, in Latrun near Jerusalem."

He added that this happened during the "Six Day" war, Israel's name for the 1967 war, which the Arabs call the "setback."

1/7 Breaking News: After 55 years of heavy censorship, I can reveal that at least 20 Egyptian soldiers were burnt alive and buried by IDF in a mass grave, which wasn't marked&without being identified contrary to war laws, in Latrun. It happened during the Six Day's War>>> pic.twitter.com/mMe3LGIAoz

— Yossi Melman (@yossi_melman) July 7, 2022

Details of the massacre

On the reasons for the presence of Egyptian soldiers in that area, Millman pointed out that the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had signed a joint defense agreement with the late King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan, who controlled the West Bank, days before the outbreak of the war.

"Egypt deployed two commando battalions in the West Bank near Latrun, which was then a no-man's land, whose mission was to attack inside Israel and seize Lod and nearby military airfields," Millman said.

Latrun is located on the road between Jerusalem and Jaffa, about 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem, and following the 1948 war, Israel and Jordan agreed to make it a no-man's land.

In the 1967 war, Israel occupied and annexed Latrun, which is today a suburb of occupied Jerusalem.

"There was an exchange of fire with IDF soldiers and members of Kibbutz Nahshon (a cooperative agricultural grouping); some Egyptian soldiers escaped, others were taken prisoner, and there are those who fought bravely," Millman said.

"At a certain point, the IDF fired mortars and set fire to thousands of uncultivated dunums of bush in the dry summer," he said.

"At least 20 Egyptian soldiers died in the bush fire," Millman said.

Revelation of a crime committed by the Israeli army against Egyptian soldiers during the 1967 war.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reveals a 55-year-old crime, as the Israeli army buried in a mass grave in the Latrun area of Palestine the bodies of 80 Egyptian soldiers who were martyred during the 1966 war. pic.twitter.com/JNQujnqJQ1

— AJ+ Arabic (@ajplusarabi) July 9, 2022

The Israeli journalist quoted Zain Bloch, 90, who at the time was the military commander of Kibbutz Nahshon (a leftist kibbutz), as saying, "The fire spread quickly in the hot and dry bushes, and they had no chance to escape."

"The next day, IDF soldiers equipped with a bulldozer came to the scene, dug a hole, buried the Egyptian bodies and covered them with soil," Millman added, continuing to quote Bloch.

"Bloch and some members of the Nahshon kibbutz watched with horror as Israeli soldiers looted the personal belongings of Egyptians and left the mass grave unmarked," Millman said.

"Now that the military censorship has been lifted, Bloch adds that the veil of silence suits everyone; the few who knew didn't want to talk about it, we were ashamed; but above all the IDF's decision was in the midst of the war."

In his tweets, Millman noted that official unclassified military documents omit "the tragedy of Latrun from their records."

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on Millman's claim.

In the 1967 war, the Israeli army defeated Arab armies, occupying the West Bank including East Jerusalem (then under Jordanian control), the Gaza Strip (it was under Egyptian control), the Sinai Peninsula, and the Syrian Golan Heights.